The mere idea of Republicans sponsoring death penalty repeal bills in great numbers was once considered an unlikely notion. However, Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty recently released a report revealing how Republicans are championing measures to end capital punishment at never-before-seen rates.

Last month, Yemen’s Houthis, the Iranian-supported rebel faction that now dominates the southern Persian Gulf’s most volatile state, fired a ballistic missile that came close to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, before being intercepted by the country’s military. The incident was a clear sign of the deepening sectarian conflict between Tehran and Riyadh now taking place throughout the Middle East. But it was also an accurate reflection of the sort of asymmetric tactics being prioritized by Iran in its strategy for regional dominance.

How many conversations have we had with our friends, family and co-workers wondering what happened to the millennials? We expect a new generation to have new ideas and new ways of approaching the world. So how do we explain when a new generation is steeped in bullying, complaining about hurt feelings, demanding “safe spaces,” and using pride in fragile egos and weakened emotional states as the excuse to condemn free speech?

Our news-hack kids — or, as Obama chief spinner Ben Rhodes called them, the “27-year-old know-nothings” — don’t have a clue as to the operative history of the North Korean nuclear threat to Asia, the Pacific and the United States.

American manufacturing has been undergoing a tough transition for decades. Import competition and currency manipulation by other countries as well as regulatory excess at home have all taken a toll in many sectors of manufacturing. Just as manufacturing in America appears to be coming back, it faces a formidable new threat: a cabal of activists, cunning lawyers, ambitious politicians and a network of well-heeled benefactors.

Westerners applaud the actions of the Trump administration to end the war on the West waged by the Obama administration, including: President Trump’s efforts to revitalize energy production from federal lands — oil and gas and coal; his dispatch of the Environmental Protection Agency’s land-grabbing “waters of the United States” rule; and his order to revoke, roll back or revise the national monument decrees with which President Obama placed millions of acres of federal lands off-limits to economic and recreational uses.

Relieving the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of its oversight of our nation’s air traffic control (ATC) operations would create significant concerns in both military and homeland security air defense mission areas. House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Schuster has advocated relentlessly for ATC privatization, drafting and promoting two separate bills outlining the move to privatized control of the busiest airspace in the world. Endorsed by the Trump administration, this move has repercussions beyond the inherent conflict of interest presented by a commercial airline governing board.

On May 25, 1977, the original “Star Wars” movie, “A New Hope,” made its debut. It immediately had an impact that is hard to measure, especially on the generation that would, unfortunately, be called “X,” itself a seemingly sci-fi moniker.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, speaking to the Reagan National Defense Forum on Dec. 2, offered up a doomsday prediction. When asked how close the United States and North Korea are to war, Mr. McMaster replied, “It’s increasing every day.” Sen. Jim Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, seconded that statement in even more distressing language: “It is important for us here in the Senate to communicate to the American people the credible, grave, and immediate threat that we face . We don’t have the luxury of time.”

College administrators around the country, it seems, are rushing to acquiesce to even the most minor of voices on campuses to make sure the “C” word — that’s “C” for Christmas, shhh! — doesn’t cause angst in some offended student’s ears. Basically, they’re driving hard to drive out the reason for the season, Jesus Christ.

You don’t have to be a fan of Alabama’s Republican senatorial nominee Roy Moore to see that the Furies in the media aren’t willing to cut him a break even when his most lethal accusers have been caught falsifying the record. The late Charles Manson seems to have gotten a more sympathetic press. For the past two months, the “Never Moore” media have tried to sink the judge by insisting his dating of teenage girls when he was in his 30s was scandalous on its face, even when they were of age, their mothers approved and the women themselves conceded he never engaged in sexual misconduct.

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Armageddon, biblically speaking, is the sign of the end of times -- the be-all and end-all of battles, the one that pits good against evil and ushers in a period of humanly devastations unlike any ever before experienced. But to Nancy Pelosi, the House's highest-ranking Democrat, Armageddon is the Republican tax bill.

Citizens from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad -- terror hotspots, all -- and North Korea, as well as segments of Venezuela, are now barred from entering the United States, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling on President Donald Trump's executive attempt to secure the nation and stop the flow of potential terrorists across the borders. Finally, a court ruling with reason.

Colin Kaepernick is riding high, having just won the Sports Illustrated Muhammad Ali Legacy Award as well as the American Civil Liberties Union's Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award -- honors bestowed, respectively, for sportsmanship and bravery. But Kaepernick is possessed of neither. He's more a tool -- a tool of false leftist beliefs.

Robert Mueller has the heart of a Las Vegas hooker and the guile of a New Orleans stripper. Not to push the metaphor too far, he's skilled at showing a little skin in a cloud of satin and lace, but never quite comes across with what the customer is paying for.

After two centuries of government monopoly money, private monies are re-emerging and will likely come to dominate ultimately. Back in 1976, Nobel Laureate F.A. Hayek published his little classic, "Denationalization of Money." In essence, Hayek argued that money is no different than other commodities, and it would be better supplied by competition among private issuers than by a government monopoly. His book detailed the problems with government monopoly money and how most of these problems could be overcome with private competition.

One way to kill a predatory animal is to deny it sustenance. The tax-cut bill passed by the Senate, if it clears a conference with the House and President Trump signs it, may be the first step toward starving the big-government beast.

Jack Phillips is an artist. He has always loved drawing, sculpting and painting. Designing custom wedding cakes allowed him to do all three in a setting that inspired him as a person of faith. And Jack excelled at his work. The local newspaper called his shop "an art gallery of cakes," and his designs received acclaim from the well-known wedding website The Knot.

Washington has always had lots of lawyers — it's the very nature of this power town; lots of liars — it's the very nature of politics; and, as we have recently discovered, yet again, lots of real horndogs — it's the very nature of power politics.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the patent case Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene's Energy Group, LLC. In many ways, the future of American innovation hangs in the balance.

Terry McAuliffe is the kind of governor who prides himself as a good-doer who works to benefit the hard-working people of Virginia. When it comes to his efforts in Northern Virginia, however, somebody should design a T-shirt that says #RoadGrinchofVirginia.

Nowhere on the left end of the political spectrum is the call for "tolerance" more deceitful than among the organized sexually confused. Tolerance, Jonathan Capehart, a gay (but not very cheerful) editorial writer for The Washington Post, tells a television interviewer, should not be a two-way street. "It's a one-way street." Tolerance for me, but not for you.

The world customarily slows down in December — except at the mall — to gather itself for a new year. But 2017 has not been a typical year. The world is upside down, turned inside out and spinning like a child's top. The centerpiece of the clown show is the relentless Democratic campaign to bring Donald Trump's presidency to ruin. The destruction of Michael Flynn is little more than collateral damage.

In many Third World nations, a change in government leadership usually brings about criminal investigations of the past leaders. This is done to prevent the previous leadership from returning to power, or at least to make it much more difficult for it to do so. However, in examining the Obama administration's misuse of the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and God knows which other government agencies, it is clear that a thorough investigation by an impartial team is necessary. The misuse of government agencies was so bad and so exceptional that "forgive and forget" should not be an option.

At last someone has acknowledged that the predator game works two ways ("When the prey becomes the predator," Web, Nov. 30). I am proud of all the women who had guts to out their predators — whether the predator was Matt Lauer, John Conyers, Al Franken or someone none of us knows. It is ugly beyond words that these women were treated like sex toys and that they feared losing their jobs if they complained. Their workplaces were toxic.